The First Kiss Archives Three: Tomoyo's Sonata
by faeryespell
Summary: Playing the piano had always been enough for him. But ever since he left, the music had been incomplete.


A collection of sentimental tales of what can never be missed, where from the distinct love growing between comes the time of the first kiss.

The First Kiss Archives

_Archive Three: _Tomoyo's Sonata

Eriol closed his eyes. He unnoticeably began feeling the piano's ivory keys melt into his fingers, as they gracefully moved across an octave, like the thoughts that now came into his mind; amongst them, the distinctly vivid image of her. He shook his head in exasperation when one of his fingers unexpectedly went off-key.

'I haven't done this in a long time...' he murmured, stretching his hands and grabbing the pencil from behind his ear. Looking up at the staff paper settled in front of him, he stared at the last remaining bars of the piece. Empty bars, the only ones exempt of his hurried scrawl. He couldn't think of a proper ending for the composition. 'I _have_ to finish it before I leave,' he said determinedly, placing the pencil next to him on the chair. Taking a deep breath, he kept his fingers over the smooth keys, and tried once again.

As he played the piece, he didn't notice himself smile. The music was absolutely enchanting. He could just hear it softly speaking of the feelings gushing inside of him. The harmonious notes that told the story of his life and how it had begun the moment he knew her, how it had almost died when he left. Years later he returned, and still yet nothing but casual hellos and seemingly apathetic smiles. Eriol was starting to realize the reason for his incomplete piece. _She _was somehow missing from it entirely.

'If I don't tell her how I feel, this composition surely will,' he uncharacteristically sighed, lifting his fingers off the keys again. Slightly annoyed, he stared at the sudden monochrome blur before him.

'Please play something,' asked a soft voice to his right. He turned his head, and was pleasantly surprised to see her standing before the classroom door with a sweet smile on her porcelain face. She looked so maturely benign, her luscious hair even longer than it had been several years ago, and yet she looked completely the same as he remembered her.

'What would you like to hear?' he inquired, his voice its usual calm tone. How ironic it was for him to show such a refined visage when he was internally mad with emotion.

She shrugged politely. 'What you were playing a moment ago. I heard the music from afar, and I thought it was especially beautiful. Please play it again, Eriol.'

He gazed at her expectant, deep blue eyes and nodded. He didn't have to tell the piece was for her anyway.

There it was again, the feeling of mellow ecstasy. The music seemed more accented now that she was in its presence. Eriol could feel her aura surrounding him, surrounding the music. He risked a glance at her, and was delighted to see her eyes closed, her body idly swaying with the melody. She now completed the music, despite the nonexistence of the piece's closure. Approaching it, Eriol slowed his fingers to a stop.

'That was beautiful...' she whispered.

'It's incomplete,' he replied curtly, dropping his hands onto his lap. She opened her eyes and stared at him with heartbreaking innocence. He smiled at her gently. 'I haven't had the inspiration to finish it.'

'I'm certain you'll find it soon,' she assured. She looked around at the dimly lit classroom. 'It's hard to believe we once studied here, yet it seems we were here just yesterday, in the same situation, you playing the piano after school as always.'

Eriol chuckled. 'I always wondered why I was never the only one to stay behind.' He looked away from her. 'You and Sakura, and even Syaoran Li, would usually be here.'

'We loved to watch you play,' she said sincerely.

Eriol lifted his head. He had hoped she would say something more personally meaningful, perhaps a statement saying _she_ had wanted to stay, and not for his playing, but for him only. 'I always appreciated it, though,' he whispered.

'You know, Eriol,' she continued, 'when you left us, I thought of taking up piano lessons myself.'

'And?'

She blushed faintly. 'I'm still learning.'

Without a word, Eriol stood up from the wooden piano stool and stepped away from it. He gazed at her questionably and she smiled shyly in reply. For a reason he didn't care to know, the thought of her playing the only instrument he loved seemed to quicken his heartbeat. Perhaps it was a fateful sign compelling him to tell her of his feelings, now or never. As she slowly walked up to the stool, Eriol could only imagine her reaction to what he had to say.

'Do you know the piece called _Dreams_?' she asked him. Genuinely surprised, he nodded. He recalled himself searching for that piece just for the momentary pleasure of feeling her beside him. 'The version I learned was a duet, the _secondo _part. I'll play it, if you play the _primo_ alongside me, that is, if you know it, I hope.'

'Of course,' he said softly. Nothing would give him greater joy than to do so. They sat down on the stool, their thighs almost touching. Her naturally sweet scent met Eriol's nose, and he watched her fingers slide stray locks behind one ear. She glanced sideways at him.

'Ready?'

Eriol's eyes traveled down to her mouth, so close to his own. How he longed to kiss those rose lips. 'Whenever you are.'

Her fingers pressed down on the white keys, gliding along like water in alternate motion. So modest for her to say she was still learning when in Eriol's silent opinion she played quite expertly. On a particular note, he joined her in the piece. Together they swam through the spellbinding music, their hands meeting each other so often all feeling was lost in them. The small room faded; Eriol was just barely aware of the piano itself. Its music enraptured him as it always did. As for her, the possible figment of his sentimental dreams, she looked beyond happy as she watched herself play. And she was unbelievably close to him. He was tempted to stop playing and instead hold her in his arms, but his determination to finish the piece for her sake overcame the urge. Suddenly, she stopped.

'What's wrong? You were playing beautifully,' said Eriol, releasing a breath he didn't know he had been holding.

'That's all I know,' she answered quietly. She looked so innocent then.

'You play amazingly,' he told her honestly.

'Thank you,' she answered with an unmistakable blush, and she looked up at him.

Adrenaline surged though Eriol like wildfire. He was certain that if she had been any closer she would've undoubtedly heard the resounding throb of his heart. The impulse was too much for him to take anymore. He slowly brought his face nearer to hers, and he was delighted to see that she wasn't moving contrarily. Her eyes grew wide, though, and still she did not move. But as pride would have it, _he _pulled back at that instant.

'I'm sorry,' he whispered. 'I wasn't thinking. It just won't seem right; I'm leaving again in a few days. The least I can do is finish my composition... for you. Knowing I completed it and leaving you will hurt much less than giving you a single kiss and leave it hanging in the air. The finished composition will last longer than that. I'm sorry, but I don't want to feel anymore than what is hurting me now. But I do want to finish this piece for you.'

She looked momentarily stunned, then her blue eyes relaxed calmly. 'Thank you,' she said simply.

Eriol watched in growing regret as she stood up and walked out of the classroom, her beautiful head hanging low with a seemingly mirrored feeling.

oOo

She bit her lip to stop herself from sighing when the sweet tune of the piano echoed along the corridor. He had said the composition was _for her_. Stepping one foot in front of the other, she closed her eyes to listen to the magnificent music. But it seemed rather strained.

Trying not to think of feeling only satisfaction for the music's present state, she began to mentally arrange the confused battle going on inside her mind. She _had_ wanted him to kiss her, and although he had voiced the reason she couldn't yet grasp just why he had pulled back at the last possible moment. As a matter of fact, she couldn't grasp what she really felt for him either. She had always known he had feelings for her, and it had been because of this she had grown to like him in the first place. As the years passed, the feeling grew genuine, and when he left she could only regret never telling him the truth. Now that he was back, her mouth still wouldn't open to say what she really wanted. How she had longed to tell him when he had sat next to her.

She finally let out her sigh and thought that nothing would ever happen between them. Opening her eyes, she leaned against the wall until her head rested on its smooth surface. The music was so beautiful. She wished she could play just like he did, _for_ him. The melodious tune embraced her softly, and slowly she began to imagine he was holding her with the same emotion. She couldn't resist her old habit: she opened her mouth to sing.

It was as if she knew the music already; it filled her with so much feeling only possible to express through words. And she sang what she was feeling right now. Everything she wanted to tell him, everything she wanted to happen between them.

oOo

Eriol stopped, yet the he could still hear the tune of his composition being sung. Then he realized the angelic singing was coming from outside in the corridor, and he could actually understand what was being sung. He could hear the words plainly.

'_I don't know what else to do but follow what my heart tells me to. Yet when I look into your eyes I turn my unrevealed truth to lie…_'

She was there, her eyes visibly closed, standing in the center of the corridor with her hands entwined together against her chest. Eriol stared at her in indescribable bliss. She had completed the music. He didn't need a proper ending to his composition; her singing was enough to mask it entirely. And what she was saying now was enough for him to take. He strode forwards, his footsteps startling her and ceasing her song.

'I –' she began, her pale cheeks reddening profusely. Eriol breathed in deeply, suddenly at a loss at what to say. She looked absolutely heavenly.

'That was beautiful,' he whispered, his body becoming rigidly frozen. The moment was perfect; here they stood after several years of silence, within arm's reach of one another, alone in the place he had grown to love her in, and fate would never provide him with another opportunity such as this. He wanted to… he _needed_ to…

She stepped forward and pressed her lips against his, cupping his face in her hands.

Stunned by the feeling, Eriol lifted a hand to pull himself away, but the touch of her lips on his began to excite him. The kiss felt nothing like he had ever imagined; it was better in all its sweetness. He slowly brought his hands to her waist, and gently pulled her body closer to his until they met, and they kissed for an ecstatically long time. Finally, Eriol lifted his head, and brought his mouth to the side of her warm cheek.

'I love you, Tomoyo,' he murmured into her ear. 'Sorry it took me so long to say it…'

She rested her head on his shoulder. 'You say it every time I think of you,' she whispered. 'I'm the one who has to tell you now… I love you too.'

Eriol embraced her more tightly, and he smiled in satisfaction. 'I think I know what the ending to my piece is going to sound like.'

'You do?'

Eriol tenderly kissed her head. 'As long as I never let go of this moment, that piece will always be complete.'


End file.
